Big gaps between protection provided by Secret Service and private firms could put her in danger, former Secret Service officials say.
Trump cancels Kamala Harris’ Secret Service protection
President Trump cancels Kamala Harris’ Secret Service detail before her 15-city book tour begins.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump just yanked former Vice President Kamala Harris’ Secret Service protective detail, just as she’s about to go on a national book tour. Harris joins the list of other former top U.S. officials and their family members to have this very expensive taxpayer-funded service revoked by the president.
This could put Harris, the first Black woman to serve as vice president, in danger given the gaps between the protection provided by the Secret Service and any private firm she likely would hire to continue her coverage, current and former Secret Service officials told USA TODAY on Aug. 29.
Private security will never provide the same level of protection as the Secret Service, these officials say.
“Obviously, the more you pay, the more you get,” said A.T. Smith, a private security consultant who was deputy director of the Secret Service from 2012 to 2015. “But I don’t think any of the firms would be able to rise to the level of the Secret Service simply because of all of the things that go into its protection.”
Smith said Harris could easily spend several millions a year and still not get the same level of protection provided by the Secret Service.
That’s because private firms – even though they often use former Secret Service agents – lack direct access to critically important threat assessments conducted and shared by local, state and federal law enforcement and intelligence officials, Smith and other former Secret Service officials said.
Private VIP security firms also don’t have the unparalleled expertise, they say, to fend off cyberattacks and chemical and biological weapons threats that the Secret Service does. And the private firms lack the manpower and legal authority to conduct motorcades, do crowd control and secure a large public area, these former officials said.
“Whether it’s the close protection and security perimeter, the motorcades, the technical security piece and, of course, the chem-bio related stuff,” Smith said, “you’re just not going to get it” from private sector firms.
What did Trump do to Harris, and is it legal?
Under the Former Vice President Protection Act of 2008, former vice presidents – and their spouses and children under 16 – are granted Secret Service protection for six months after leaving office. That’s far short of the lifetime protection usually afforded former presidents and their spouses.
For Harris and her family that period ended on July 21. However, Harris’ own protection had been extended for another year under an undisclosed directive signed by then-President Joe Biden before he left office in January, a federal law enforcement official confirmed to USA TODAY on Aug. 29.
On Aug. 28, the federal official said, Trump sent a directive to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem authorizing her to “discontinue any security-related procedures” for Harris beginning Sept. 1. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing security operations.
Trump has pulled security from other targeted VIPs
Harris – whose Secret Service code name is Pioneer – isn’t the first high-profile former White House official or family member to lose their security detail thanks to Trump.
Trump revoked his former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s protection on his first day in office in January even though Bolton has long been the target of confirmed assassination plots by the Iranian government for his role in the U.S. military takeout of a top Iranian general in 2020.
In Bolton’s case, Trump already had stripped the advisor-turned-critic of his Secret Service detail once before, soon after firing Bolton in September 2019. Bolton was subsequently granted security by Biden.
Trump has also withdrawn protective details for other former top aides also being targeted by Iran, including former national security adviser Robert O’Brien and former CIA director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the federal law enforcement official said.
In March, Trump ended Secret Service protection assigned to Biden’s adult children Hunter and Ashley in a social media post.
And Trump reportedly removed Secret Service protection for Dr. Anthony Fauci, who oversaw the federal government’s response to the Covid pandemic, in January.
How unusual is Trump’s order?
Trump’s abrupt cancellation of Harris’ extended detail marks a departure from informal courtesies that incoming administrations recently have provided for their predecessors.
Before leaving office in 2009, President Barack Obama extended protection for outgoing Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secret Service officials told USA TODAY.
In January 2021, President Joe Biden provided extensions for Trump’s family despite Trump’s efforts to stay in office after losing the 2020 election.
Is Harris currently facing threats?
Neither Biden nor Harris have said why the outgoing president extended her protective detail.
The Secret Service had no comment on that in response to questions Aug. 29 from USA TODAY.
But the protective agency has been conducting the same standard periodic threat assessments for Harris as it does for any of its dozens of official protectees, the federal official said.
Because those assessments are classified, the official could not comment on whether authorities have uncovered stalkers or other threats to Harris, or whether potential dangers were taken into account before Trump issued his letter to Noem.
Those assessments, combining intelligence from Secret Service, FBI, ATF and other agencies, are supposed to be considered before a security detail is dropped, former Secret Service Director John Magaw told USA TODAY.
As head of the Department of Homeland Security, Noem ultimately is the one who decides whether to continue Harris’ protection, Magaw said.
“All of those intelligence systems are looked at to see if there have been any threats, any letters or worse, or if her name has been mentioned anywhere. If there’s anything that looks like a threat, then they will continue her on” as an official protectee, Magaw said. “They don’t want to be in a position of putting her at additional risk” by dropping her security detail.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about whether Noem is reviewing Harris’ Secret Service threat assessments before making her decision.
Harris is preparing for a 15-city tour to promote her book ,“107 Days,” about her short-lived 2024 presidential campaign.
Is Trump politicizing security measures?
Harris backers and Trump critics jumped on the news as further evidence that the president is violating accepted norms and protocols and retaliating against his political adversaries.
“Another dangerous reminder that there’s no agenda more important to Donald Trump than retribution. He feeds conspiracy theories to his followers. Makes their targets more vulnerable. Then pulls their security,” said Sen. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat like Harris.
“This is a dark road,” Schiff said in an X post. “And we have a President that is all-too-willing to drive us down it.”
Harris, a Los Angeles resident, has yet to comment in detail except to thank the Secret Service for her protection over the years.
But California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass are among Harris’ fellow Golden State Democrats who have broached the issue of exploring alternative security measures to protect Harris, who was previously the top prosecutor in the state and also in San Francisco.
